A Look Back at the 2026 National Tug of War Championships

GENSB (Junior) Competition

The day started with the GENSB junior competition with 4 teams taking part – Bedfordshire, Upper Eden, Beaminster and Felton Eccles. The top two teams went to the final with Area 4 and Felton Eccles progressing. Upper Eden and Bedfordshire went into the bronze medal match. This was a 3 end battle with Upper Eden winning the deciding end. In the final, we had another 3 end battle between Area 4 and Felton Eccles. Felton took the first two ends with Area 4 winning the next two ends to take the title.

Photo: Beaminster GENSB Team

Junior Men 560kg

The junior mens 560kg competition had just two teams taking part this year with Area 4 and South West Area taking part. South West Area took the gold medal with Area 4 finishing as runners up. We would like to see more junior teams taking part in the 2027 National Championships, so now is a great time to start getting your teams together and preparing for next year. If you need any support getting your junior teams together, then please do not hesitate to contact us for assistance.

Photo: Area 4 Junior Team

Senior Women 540kg

The womens 540kg saw East Anglia, Army Ladies, Bedford Ladies, Melton Mowbray and Upper Eden entered. The top four teams were Melton Mowbray, Army, Bedford Ladies and East Anglia. The top two teams progressed to the final, those being Army Ladies and Melton Mowbray Ladies. Bedford Ladies and East Anglia contested the bronze medal. In the bronze medal match, Bedford Ladies took bronze by 2 ends to 0, before Melton Mowbray Ladies took gold against Army Ladies in the final by the same scoreline.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below

Senior Women 520kg

The Womens 520 saw Bedfordshire, East Anglia, Army Ladies, Bedford Ladies and Melton Mowbray taking part. After the group round, Army Ladies and Melton Mowbray progressed to the final, with East Anglia and Bedford Ladies contesting the bronze medal match. In the bronze medal match, Bedford Ladies won their second bronze of the day by 2 ends to 0, before Melton went on to win their third gold medal of the day against Army Ladies by 2 ends to 0.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below

Senior Mixed 580kg

The mixed 580kg was split into two groups with Lincoln, East Anglia, Bosley, York and Army in group 1, and Kilroe, Bedford, Bedfordshire, and Upper Eden in group 2. Lincoln progressed in first place from group 1, followed by East Anglia. Kilroe topped group 1 followed by Bedford. In the semi finals the teams crossed over, with Lincoln defeating Bedford and Kilroe defeating East Anglia. In the bronze medal match, Bedford defeated East Anglia by 2 ends to 0, before Lincoln went on to win gold by defeating Kilroe in the final by 2 ends to 0.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below

A huge thank you once again to all of the judges, recorders, marshalls, volunteers and Upper Eden TOWC and their crew for organising and running this years chamnpionships.

If you wish to host the 2027 National Championships, then please get in touch as we are currently accepting bids to host next years event. Please contact us for further information about what will be required.

Senior Women 500kg

Following the completion of the GENSB competition, we had the first senior weights start – the womens 500kg and the mens 640kg.

In the womens 500kg, East Anglia, Melton Mowbray, Bedford Ladies, Bedfordshire, and Upper Eden take to the field. The top 2 teams progressed to the final with the third and fourth placed teams going forward to the bronze medal match (competitions go to a semi-final with 6 teams or more). Bedford Ladies and Melton Mowbray progressed to the final with Upper Eden and Bedfordshire going into the bronze medal match. The bronze medal match saw Bedfordshire take the bronze against the home team, before we had a repeat of the 2025 final. Once again, Melton put in a strong performance to take the gold medal by 2 ends to 0 to win this weight class for the third year running.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below.

Junior Women 480kg

The junior womens competition had Upper Eden, Bedfordshire and Beaminster taking part with a round robin competition with the top two teams going to the final. Bedfordshire and Beaminster progressed to the final with Beaminster taking another win to earn their second gold medal of the day in the junior competitions.

Photo: Upper Eden Junior Women

Junior Mixed 520kg

The Junior Mixed 520kg saw Beaminster, Felton Eccles and Upper Eden taking part with the top two teams progressing to the final. Felton Eccles and Upper Eden progressed to the final with a good battle taking place, this time with Felton Eccles taking the gold medal.

Photo: Felton Eccles Junior Mixed Team

Photo: Felton Eccles Junior Mixed Team

Senior Men 600kg

The Mens 600kg competition was split into two groups, with Lincoln, Upper Eden, York, Bosley and Army in group 1, with Oxney Vines Cross, Anstey, Norton, Bedfordshire and Felton Eccles in group 2. Group 1 was a closely contested group with lots of 1-1 pulls in that. When all of the points and cautions were totalled, it was Upper Eden and York who progressed. In the second group, Norton and Anstey were the top two teams, who finished in joint first place after going 1-1 with each other in the group. In the semi final, Anstey defeated York and Norton defeated Upper Eden. In the bronze medal match, we had a good battle between York and Upper Eden, with the bronze going to York by 2 ends to 0. In the final, we had Norton vs Anstey. Both of these clubs have had some good finals open competitions leading up to the event, and after a 1-1 in the group, we were looking forward to another close final. This time, Anstey improved from their group performance to take the gold medal by 2 ends to 0.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below

Men 720kg

The final weights of the day were the mens 720kg and catchweight competitions, both of which were run on a knock-out basis. The 720kg was a 7 team knock out competition. In the quarter finals, Oxney Vines Cross defeated Felton Eccles, Lincoln defeated Upper Eden, Norton defeated Army. Bedfordshire had the bye into the semi final. In the semi finals, Norton defeated Bedfordshire and Oxney defeated Lincoln. A close fought bronze medal match saw Bedfordshire take the bronze by 2 ends to 1. In the final, Oxney and Norton faced each other, and unlike the bronze medal match, this didn’t go to three ends, but it was a good hard battle which went the way of Norton by 2 ends to 0.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below

Senior Men 640kg

The mens 640kg was an 8 team group competition with the top 4 teams progressing to the semi finals. The 8 teams were Bedfordshire, Felton Eccles, Lincoln, Norton, Kilroe, Oxney, York and Upper Eden. The top four teams were Lincoln, Norton, Oxney Vines Cross and Bedfordshire. In the semi finals, Lincoln faced Bedfordshire and Norton faced Oxney Vines Cross. Lincoln managed to overcome Bedfordshire by 2 ends to 0 while Oxney and Norton battled through 3 ends. Oxney took the first end and Norton took the second end. Oxney made a substitution for the third end and managed to edge out Norton to progress to the final. In the bronze medal match, we had another three end pull between Norton and Bedfordshire with Norton winning bronze by 2 ends to 1. In the final, Lincoln put in a good performance to win the gold medal by 2 ends to 0 to win this weight class for the sixth consecutive year.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below.

Senior Men 560kg

The mens 560kg was a group of 6 with Anstey, Upper Eden, Oxney, Bedfordshire, Bosley and Lincoln taking part. The top four teams were Anstey, Upper Eden, Bosley and Oxney. In the semi-finals, Anstey and Oxney faced each other with Bosley and Upper Eden competing against each other in the other semi-final. Anstey defeated Oxney by 2 ends to 0 to get to the final for the second year running while Upper Eden and Bosley endured a three end match. Bosley took the first end with Upper Eden taking the second end. Bosley made a substitution for the third end and went on to take the end to reach the final. In the bronze medal match Oxney and Upper Eden faced each other. The group stage match went 2-0 to Upper Eden, however on this occasion, Oxney managed to turn the tables and earned a 2 ends to 0 win to take the bronze medal. I the final, Anstey face Bosley, with Anstey looking to defend their title from 2025. Both teams had a decent match early on the competition, which Antsey had won by 2 ends to 0 and once again, Anstey proved to be the stronger of the two teams to take both ends to win gold and retain the title.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below.

Senior Men 680kg

The mens 680kg competition was pulled as a straight group with a lot of hard ends and close pulling. Army, Bedfordshire, Felton Eccles, Lincoln, Oxney, York and Upper Eden took part with the eventual semi-finalists being Lincoln, Oxney, Felton Eccles and Bedfordshire. In the semi-finals Oxney overcame Bedfordshire and Lincoln overcame Felton Eccles. Felton and Bedfordshire contested a hard fought bronze medal match that eventually went to Bedfordshire by 2 ends to 0. In the final, we got a good three end match between Lincoln and Oxney, with Lincoln taking the first end and Oxney taking the second end. Lincoln won the coin toss for the choice of the third end and went on to win the third end and their second gold medal of the day.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below:

Senior Women 560kg

The final womens weight of the day was the 560kg with East Anglia, Bedfordshire, Bedford Ladies, Melton Mowbray and Army taking part. The top two teams were Army Ladies and Melton Mowbray who progressed to the final. The bronze medal match was between Bedford Ladies and Bedfordshire which went to three ends, with Bedford Ladies taking their third bronze medal of the day by 2 ends to 1. I the final, Melton Mowbray made it a clean sweep of the ladies weights by winning their fourth gold medal by 2 ends to 0.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below

Men Catchweight

The final weight of the day was the catchweight competition which was a 5 team knock-out. Bosley and Lincoln had to pull a preliminary round to get to the semi-final which was won by Lincoln. In the semi finals, Army defeated Lincoln by 2 ends to 0 and Upper Eden defeated Bedfordshire. In the bronze medal match, Lincoln took bronze by 2 ends to 0. In the final, we saw a little bit of history with Army winning their first ever national mens gold by defeating Lincoln by 2 ends to 0. Congratulations to them.

You can watch the bronze medal pull and final on YouTube below